Chamber and committees

The First Minister announced on 2 March that from 15 March regulated school age childcare services can reopen for all primary children alongside P4-7 as part of the phase 2 return. These plans are conditional on continued progress on suppressing the virus.

On 9 March, the First Minister announced that organised outdoor non-contact group sport and physical activity for 12-17 year olds will be permitted to resume from 12 March, subject to a maximum of 15 participants and to sport specific guidance agreed with sportscotland. While we don’t yet have a date for the resumption of contact sport for 12-17 year olds, the First Minister noted that we will seek to build on these changes as quickly as possible in the weeks ahead.

On the 16 March, the First Minister is expected to provide a more detailed timetable for the period after 26 April.

The Scottish Government follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.

The JCVI priority lists represents 99% of the preventable mortality from COVID-19 and throughout the delivery of the vaccination programme we will be guided by the clinical expertise of the JCVI, the MHRA, and our own senior clinical advisers.

The Scottish Government is working with the sector to explore what measures can be put in place to support the physical and mental wellbeing of international students who are subject to managed isolation arrangements.

In relation to their financial wellbeing, international and EU students can now apply for financial hardship support from the £22m HE Coronavirus Discretionary Fund and £3m FE Coronavirus Discretionary Fund, which were allocated to the universities and colleges in February. Institutions' assessments and awards are based on the individual circumstances involved, however the eligible scenarios can include costs associated with travel to / from Scotland if a) their travel is essential and in line with current travel restrictions/ exemptions; and b) they are in financial hardship and can demonstrate this through the institution's hardship assessment process.

The Scottish Government follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Guidance in the planning of vaccine delivery. This evidence based guidance advises that the single greatest risk of mortality from COVID-19 is increasing age, and that the risk increases exponentially with age. Additionally the committee considers frontline health and social care workers who provide direct care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination.

The JCVI priority lists represents 99% of the preventable mortality from COVID-19 and throughout the delivery of the vaccination programme we will be guided by the clinical expertise of the JCVI, the MHRA, and our own senior clinical advisers.

We continue to engage in international developments in relation to Coronavirus (COVID-19), including on the issue of vaccine certification.

These discussions are led by the World Health Organisation and include consideration of technical details, ethical and equality issues, and privacy standards. The outcome of those discussions will guide our work in this area.

All vaccinations information is held on an individual’s medical records.

The Scottish Government published an update on the Strategic Framework which includes information about visiting relatives in care homes. More information can be found here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Strategic Framework update - February 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Scottish Government does not plan to reimburse the travel costs of people who are unable to access public transport to attend their COVID-19 vaccination appointment. We are working with the voluntary and third sector to set up a centralised volunteer coordination hub to make good use of the locally offered support, and in particular for deployment at mass vaccination clinics and to help people who need assistance to access local clinics.

The focus of the national booking system is to ensure that all patients are able to attend an appointment as quickly as possible. Every effort has been made to minimise travel time where possible, but this may be impacted by individual circumstance such as the availability of transport.

Some vaccinations do need to be in larger centres to make use of the Pfizer vaccine which comes in bigger batches than AstraZeneca. The national booking line is in place for rescheduling appointments if the one offered is inappropriate or the patient is unable to attend. Booking line details are provided on every patient appointment letter.

The Scottish Government has emphasised to all Health Board Chief Executives, highlighting the importance of resourcing the Covid-19 vaccination service, including ensuring individuals contacting them for an appointment are offered alternative options for those who are clinically vulnerable and house bound.

I have made it clear in her recent correspondence to all the Health Boards and professionals that individuals who are unable to leave their own homes will receive their vaccination at home.

All Health Boards have included their housebound patients within their delivery models for each priority group, for example we have had confirmation that those aged 80 and over living in the community who are housebound have received their vaccination, with only small gaps for reasons such as illness or non-consent.

Staff at symptomatic test sites are now included as part of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) criteria cohort 2 and this is being communicated via a letter from the Chief Medical Officer which will be issued shortly.

Decisions to prioritise one population group over another are not taken lightly, nor are they straightforward. That is why our prioritisation decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the independent expert advice from the JCVI.

The Scottish Government published an update to the strategic framework on 23 February 2021. The updated framework sets out our plans and conditions for easing restrictions within level 4 before returning to different protection levels in different parts of the country from the end of April.

The First Minister said in Parliament that she hoped weddings would be able to take place with greater numbers of people in the period after the end of April, but that the numbers will likely still be restricted.

We will set out more detail in mid-March on the indicators that will guide our decisions on protection levels, as well as on any revision to the content of each level.

The latest evidence and public health advice, including evidence of the impact on transmission from the initial phase of school return and vaccination, as well as progress on vaccinating more of the priority groups, will inform our next steps.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of marriage and civil partnership to couples and to society more widely, and we appreciate the difficulties caused by the restrictions in place. We will continue to keep the restrictions under close review and are committed to not keeping the restrictions in place any longer than is absolutely necessary.